Album Information

Recommendation: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Released after a series of EPs, singles, and other releases through Sunset Grid, Award Tour is creative_reality17’s first proper full-length. Breaking tradition by releasing on Bogus Collective, Award Tour is a vaporhop album of bite-sized songs that evoke a vaporwave J Dilla in their discursive fragmentation. Each track is named after a different city,1 as creative_reality17 sought to evoke “an aspiring tour around the world” – either as a personal gap year-type of tour or a music kind of tour.

The album incorporates the artist’s by this time distinct brand of vaporhop that utilizes loud, clipped percussion as an aesthetic instead of as a byproduct of an unfortunate mastering. There are clear, short melodies to be heard within each track, although the percussion certainly takes center-stage. Although trap and hardcore techno beats were the primary compositional elements of beat-driven vaporwave in 2016 (due in no small part to the domination of hardvapour, literally and figuratively), Award Tour is heavy in speedy kick-snare with a loud, compressed timbre – something much more commonly found in the American southern hip-hop scene than in vaporwave (opening track “ADDIS ABABA” notwithstanding). There are techno beats, but they’re polyrhythmic and experimental with less focus on bass than creative_reality17’s contemporaries. This type of percussion would move upstage upon creative_reality17 starting the Techwave series, but it’s still a significant component of their style.

Award Tour is a bit little rough, and fifteen tracks of less than two minutes each will do that to you –
especially in an early full-length. The percussion is very loudly mixed, which leads to several moments of unfortunate and audible clipping that doesn’t quite match the mix of other tracks (compare “AMSTERDAM” with “GENOA”). Those who enjoy the bite-sized production aesthetic an enjoyable vaporhop release with strong instrumental hip-hop tendencies. Play it on speakers rather than headphones for the full experience.